Outcry Failed To Save Pompano High

It was a relatively quiet 1985 in northeast Broward, save for the uproar over the closing of Pompano Beach High School in August due to underenrollment.

Threats of lawsuits, protest rallies and the cries of angered parents and students failed to keep the facility open. It is now being considered for multiple educational uses.

Here are other news highlights of the past year:

POMPANO BEACH

(BU) The city finally convinced Broward County in August that it would not budge on its opposition to a $230 million regional garbage incinerator planned for the city`s industrial district, at Copans and Powerline roads.

County officials moved the construction site to the Waste Management landfill north of city limits, ending two years of political and courtroom battles.

(BU) The city was rocked in March with news that ESM Government Securities Inc., a Fort Lauderdale firm, had collapsed while holding $11.9 million in city investments. Allegations of fraud and a series of lawsuits followed. Meanwhile, the city used reserve accounts to replenish its budget. In the next few months, the city is expected to realize a partial, $2.7 million recovery of its losses.

(BU) Bobby Liuzzo, the former Pompano Beach police captain accused of drug trafficking, was found innocent after a federal trial in February. The departmental infighting that lingered between Liuzzo`s supporters and detractors, however, led in January to the resignation of former Police Chief Schuyler ``Ted`` Meyer III and two months later his chief of investigations, Capt. Kelton Wheeler.

A nine-month search for a new chief culminated Oct. 7 with the appointment of Police Chief John Lewis, formerly a captain in the Metro-Dade Police Department.

(BU) The city`s second annual Pompano Air Fair, billed as an aerial extravaganza of stunt flying, was a fizzle April 13 and 14 after persistent rain wiped out attendance. Fair organizers John and Brian Becker said they doubted a third fair would be worth the effort at Pompano Air Park.

DEERFIELD BEACH

(BU) City commissioners in December ordered the removal of thousands of cubic yards of topsoil from the city`s public beach after about 80 residents protested the action.

The city had accepted 37,000 cubic yards of sand to be spread on the beach as a donation from United Suites Development, owner of the Embassy Suites Hotel, under construction at Southeast Ninth Street and State Road A1A. But it turned out to be topsoil.

(BU) Deerfield Beach native and city commissioner Sylvia Poitier made history in October when she was sworn in as Broward County`s first black commissioner. Gov. Bob Graham selected Poitier to fill the remaining 13 months of Commissioner Marcia Beach`s term after Beach resigned to attend law school.

(BU) The 220-room Deerfield Beach Grand Hilton Hotel, whose peachy-pink and gleaming glass exterior gave the city a prominent landmark, celebrated its opening on Nov. 1 with a party attended by 600 people. The $17 million hotel is eight stories tall, has four meeting rooms, a 125-seat restaurant and nine suites.

LIGHTHOUSE POINT

Mayor Albert E. Fletcher Jr. spent half the year engaged in a one-man battle against the use of helicopters to pick up deposit bags from bank roofs. And the crusade will continue into 1986.

The three city commissioners present at the board`s final meeting of the year Dec. 17 declined to call for a vote on two anti-helicopter ordinances sponsored by Fletcher.

He contended that helicopters hovering over streets, sidewalks and parking lots near the Barnett Bank branch at 2850 N. Federal Highway endangered people and property in Lighthouse Point.

SEA RANCH LAKES

Police Chief Robert Oehl resigned in July after an 11-year career, saying ``political turmoil`` led to his abrupt departure. He is now semi-retired in West Palm Beach, keeping busy as a security consultant.